BIRD OF THE WEEK - Week Eight (DOWNY WOODPECKER)

I must apologize.  Much to my chagrin, last weekend came and went much too quickly and it was not until Tuesday that I realized I forgot to post Bird of the Week!  That did not stop the birds from singing though.  I think I hear all the birds from the past seven weeks each and every day.  The bird I was planning to feature next was the Northern Mockingbird, however, I see many of them, but I don't hear them singing!  What's up with that?  So in the meantime, we will cover the Downy Woodpecker.  If you are not familiar with his song, you probably have heard it often and just didn't give it much thought.  You can pretty much see a Downy just about anywhere.  Always in the woods, but also in neighborhoods.  If you have a suet feeder, they are frequent visitors.  They have a whinny rather than a song.  It is a rapid whinny of notes that descend in pitch.  Their call note is a flat pick.  Of course, it is much easier to listen to it than to try to describe their sound, so here is the link:  www.enature.com/birding/audio.asp.  Under Tree-Clinging Birds click Woodpeckers.  Go to page 2 and click on Downy Woodpecker.  So "keep your ear to the ground," as they say, or perhaps, "keep your ear to the air."  In any case, be well and bird well!

The Perfect Gift

Have you ever wondered what to get the bird lover in your life?  Well, just in case you have, here's an idea.  Why not make a gift basket for them.  This one is almost too simple.  Just fill with different types of bird food and you have the perfect gift!  You can even buy bird food at your local supermarket in small packages.  Or if you like, my husband and I picked up a 75lb bag of black oil sunflower seeds at Sam's Club.  So, you can find bird food just about in any type of store.

New Project - Coconut Feeder

Okay, we have another feeder that looks pretty interesting.  It is a 'Coconut feeder'.  I don't come across too many coconuts in my travels, but I am sure they are out there somewhere.

We are counting down to our Birding soiree!  So pick a project from our list or feel free to bring one of your own. 

The list of items you need doesn't look that difficult. 

We will have some general supplies for our birding projects such as paint and the wire clippers etc.  I have a limited supply of bird food, so we can put together our feeders with  enough to start them out. 

Rare sighting in an Industrial Park!

San, ever since you told me what you thought you saw the other day when you were over by my job I have been diligently looking for this bird.

And guess what!!!  Today I actually saw him (or her) in the grassy part of a parking lot on my way to work.   I immediately turned my car around and tried taking pictures with my phone.   Needless to say, he is so small in the pictures you can't really make him out.  But it was most definitely a Killdeer.
I must admit, I have never in my entire life seen this bird.  I thought  they were only near water, which my job definitely is not unless you count puddles.

Thanks San for telling me to keep on the lookout.  Once I looked this bird up, I realized it isn't so rare a find in a parking lot after all.

This is what I found when I researched the bird:

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  Habitat

  Look for Killdeer on open ground with low vegetation (or no vegetation at all), including lawns, golf courses, driveways, parking lots, and gravel-covered roofs, as well as pastures, fields, sandbars and mudflats. This species is one of the least water-associated of all shorebirds.
  
  
  

Food Project - Suet

A Fat treat...doesn't that just sound delicious.  This food project is real simple.  And the birds love suet.  This project really doesn't need a lot of explanation, but it is fairly easy and in the summertime we just need to hang it in the shade, not in the full sun.

Ooops!!!

We need to issue our first retraction.  We were so caught up in the excitement of seeing so many birds that we misspoke when we listed the Common Merganser as a year round Duck on Long Island.  

They actually don't arrive on Long Island until around March each year.  So to remain true to our original goal  we will remove them from our list.   

We know that most of our followers wouldn't have been none the wiser, so we offer this apology to all who were offended by our faux pas.   We shall keep birding.

BIRD OF THE WEEK - Week Seven (BLUE JAY)

Welcome to Week Seven of Bird of the Week.  We are again featuring a very common and very recognizable bird, the Blue Jay.  This bird can be heard any time of the year.  They were flying amuck in the preserves we were in Friday so I thought I'd make them the Bird of the Week.  Their call is a very loud jay, jay, jay.  It often signals an alarm, but at lower intensities is used to attract other jays, as in courtship.  Also heard at any time of the year is a bell-like call of two parts - toolool, toolool.  There is also the rattle call, which is a dry, non-musical rattle.  As with most birds, there are variations depending on the area.  If you are trying to learn these calls, it will be easy because Blue Jays are usually out in the open and you can see just who is making all that racket!  As always, BirdJam has a good audio of the Blue Jay.  It is a little varied from the Long Island Blue Jays, but close enough to learn the call.  The link is www.birdjam/learn.php.  Click on Blue Jay.  Until next time....